Sirius XM Christmas Music

Sirius XM started playing Christmas music 24/7 on November 1st.

They have a bunch of channels - some only for streaming.

These are 3 that I set the car and house units too,

Channel 3 - Holiday Traditions. As the name implies, traditional Christmas music. Think Perry Como, Dean Martin, Mitch Miller, Nate King Cole.
We listened to this one a lot last year.

Channel 4 - Holly. This is more contempory artists. The last few years we found it to play good songs but quite repetitious. The other interesting thing. None of the songs ever make reference to Christ or religion at all.

Channel 70 - Hallmark Channel. We just discovered this. Over the last few days we find we like it. Sort of a nice blend of the above two.


My wife is big on Christmas. She has been playing Christmas music CDs already.

I figured I would set the satellite stations for her enjoyment.
But I do have "listening rights" and can change the station as I am not ready for 24/7 Christmas tunes quite yet even though ML is.

Sorry, Phil, but all I can say is, thank goodness it’s easy to change channels. With apologies to Mary Lou, Christmas music exclusively 24/7 from 1 November is no longer music but torture that should be banned by the Geneva Convention.

All kidding aside, to each his own but I miss the days when the Christmas season started with Santa waving to everyone at the very end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

When I was a kid, we'd try and convince our mother that it was okay to play Christmas music from the beginning of November. She always resisted and the earliest I remember being allow to put on Christmas music was in the last week of November.

Now, this was in Bombay, India. We didn't have the constant stream of 'holidays' that are celebrated here in the US - no Halloween or Thanksgiving when I was growing up. We did have the Hindu feast of Diwali in November, and that was celebrated by people of all faiths in India. After that we'd wait until my mother started with the Christmas preparations. In early December she'd start on the marzipan, milk-cream, cookies, and various local sweets. For us, that was the beginning of the Christmas season, as the anticipation built up. We weren't allowed to eat any of the Christmas sweets until Christmas day. It was much less commercialized then than now - if I got more than one gift at Christmas, I was thrilled! The real attraction was all the family get-togethers and the exchange of sweets and cake.

I loved hearing Christmas music then. Now, I can barely go to a grocery store without being driven away by inane 'Christmas music' being blared the day after Halloween. Oh well! Things change.

However, I understand people who really love the build-up to Christmas. In small doses, the music is lovely. I love good choral Christmas music and of course, Bing Crosby and Jim Reeves.

Sorry, Phil, but all I can say is, thank goodness it’s easy to change channels.  With apologies to Mary Lou, Christmas music exclusively 24/7 from 1 November is no longer music but torture that should be banned by the Geneva Convention.

All kidding aside, to each his own but I miss the days when the Christmas season started with Santa waving to everyone at the very end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Hi Freddy. This is ML. No offense taken. However here is why I start singing Christmas songs so soon. All my life I have sung in a choir. We ALWAYS started learning new Christmas songs in the Beginning of September to be ready for all the Christmas Masses and choir events in December. Good choirs dont wait until November to start learning new music for Christmas. Most choirs have people who cannot read music and only practice for 2 hours a week. As a result it takes a long time to learn new music. We always sang for a half hour before the masses would even start. That is a lot of music to learn. Soooooo, I have always started singing Christmas music in September. I don't usually play/sing it around anyone else until the beginning of November. But Phil does know I love it early, so he indulges me from time to time. (Love that man )

Christmas music, already!? Wow!

Sorry, Phil, but all I can say is, thank goodness it’s easy to change channels.  With apologies to Mary Lou, Christmas music exclusively 24/7 from 1 November is no longer music but torture that should be banned by the Geneva Convention.

All kidding aside, to each his own but I miss the days when the Christmas season started with Santa waving to everyone at the very end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Hi Freddy. This is ML. No offense taken. However here is why I start singing Christmas songs so soon. All my life I have sung in a choir. We ALWAYS started learning new Christmas songs in the Beginning of September to be ready for all the Christmas Masses and choir events in December. Good choirs dont wait until November to start learning new music for Christmas. Most choirs have people who cannot read music and  only practice for 2 hours a week. As a result it takes a long time to learn new music. We always sang for a half hour before the masses would even start. That is a lot of music to learn. Soooooo, I have always started singing Christmas music in September.  I don't usually play/sing it around anyone else until the beginning of November. But Phil does know I love it early, so he indulges me from time to time. (Love that man )

Hi Mary Lou.  That is not quite how Phil presented it in his post and, obviously, your explanation makes perfect sense.  I had images of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer playing every five minutes from 1November to New Years Eve.  The very thought freaks me out.

As for Phil, the man cooks; that makes him a keeper right there.

I can understand, but I still am burned out on premature Christmas music ever since I went on an early December medical school interview trip many years ago, got stuck overnight in the Atlanta airport (trying to catch a little sleep on hard plastic seats), and heard The Little Drummer Boy 26 times over their sound system. 26 times.

Ml again,
I hate listening to songs like Grandma got run over even once! Yikes!
I do not like hearing the same song over and over....John, i would have shot the intercalm system after the second time!
That why I like sirius xm. Holly contemporary plays the same songs. The other 2 sirius stations play some stuff I've never heard of. Lots of variety.
I like that.

I can understand, but I still am burned out on premature Christmas music ever since I went on an early December medical school interview trip many years ago, got stuck overnight in the Atlanta airport (trying to catch a little sleep on hard plastic seats), and heard The Little Drummer Boy 26 times over their sound system.  26 times.

John, the Harry Simone Chorale's version of The Little Drummer Boy has always been my favorite Christmas song but if I had to hear it as many times as you, and under such miserable conditions, I agree with Mary Lou: destroy the speaker; there isn't a court in the land that would find us guilty.